5 Gun Control Arguments We Are Tired Of Hearing

4. Gun confiscation worked in Australia

Anti-gun activists often point to Australia as an example of how the U.S. could take away people’s guns.

Australia enacted the National Firearms Agreement following a mass shooting in 1996. The law fully outlawed semi-automatic rifles, certain shotguns and enacted strict new regulations. Australia also held a massive mandatory gun buyback program, and bought back approximately 1 million guns from its citizens.

Australia did see a decline in gun deaths after the new laws and mandatory buyback program went into effect, but the National Review pointed out in 2015 that the gun death rate had been declining for 15 years before the 1996 legislation.

While gun deaths declined, other violent crimes went up in Australia.

Reason Magazine published a piece in March, arguing armed robbery went up after the confiscation. Steven Crowder, a social and political commentator, published an article in 2015 that shows sexual assault also went up following the confiscation program.